Stephen King goes Under The Dome, again

WILMINGTON, N.C. — For the majority of his career, Stephen King would wrap a day’s work in his favourite chair, nose deep in a novel. These days however, the author of such canonical novels as Carrie and The Shining says he prefers whittling the frail hours of the evening in front of a television rather than engage in his chosen feild.“I have as much a tendency to binge-watch as anybody else,” he boasted recently. “I just finished Orange Is the New Black. I was just bowled over; it takes TV to a different level.”

King was sitting in a screening room on the North Carolina set of his own television series, Under the Dome, for which he penned not only the source novel about a mysterious, conscious encapsulation engulfing a small New England town, but also the premiere episode of the second season.

“Writing for television has turned into a much more novelistic medium,” he explained, citing The Walking Dead, The Shield and “even The Blacklist” for breaking the typical procedural mould. “What TV has to sell more than anything is time. The opportunities for success are tremendous because the characters are not safe. Anybody could go at any time.”

Last year, Under The Dome broke long held programming conventions when nearly 18 million Americans tuned in for the summer series’ debut, making it the second highest rated drama premiere of 2012-13 and the most watched summer premiere in more than two decades. When the network renewed the show, showrunners Neal Baer and Brian K. Vaughan (Vaughan has since exited as showrunner) hoped the author, who serves as an executive producer along with Steven Spielberg, would take more of a hands-on role. King had been hoping they would ask.

“What’s really great about Stephen writing the first episode is that last season we covered about two weeks ‘post dome’ and that’s more than the novel. so we really wanted Stephen to set the tone,” Baer, who appeared for a quick interview before returning to his showrunning duties, explained. “It’s just launching the show in year two with our creator. It’s still very much a Stephen King view of life where the mundane and ordinary become quite frightening and extraordinary.”

Under The Dome Season 2

Speaking of the experience, King said he was presented with “a blank cheque,” and though he didn’t get a chance to address the issue in the episode, he looks forward to the series dealing with overpopulation and euthanasia this season. Plus, he smiled, “I got a chance to kill off a couple of loved series regulars and that was fun.”

Beyond his work on Under The Dome, King also has two novels out this year: the gumshoe tale Mr. Mercedes and the upcoming November release Revival, which he calls “a dark, scary book” in the vein of Pet Sematary. All three are products of a run of inspiration that began last February. However, the 66-year-old, who famously claims to write 2,000 words a day, admitted his progress is slowing with age. “Writing is harder than it used to be, and I don’t think I have as much to say as I used to, so I write less. But it’s still what I’m good at and what I like to do,” he said. “When I was in my thirties and forties, it made me happy every day and now it makes me happy every other day. The big challenge going forward is to know when to shut up.”

To that end, King said his greatest fear is Alzheimer’s. “My brain is my main tool and I don’t want to lose it if I can,” he deadpanned. “I don’t want to phone it in. I want to be engaged in what I’m doing and I don’t want to screw up.”